Pennsylvania Abandons its Leading Climate Policy

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has withdrawn his state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, leaving the state with the fourth-highest emissions in the country without a significant climate policy. The cap-and-trade market included 10 other states, including all of New England, New York, and some Mid-Atlantic states. After a two-year legal fight over the state’s decision to quit the carbon-cutting alliance through regulatory fiat, Virginia’s Republicans governor successfully exited the group. But, as E&E News noted, Shapiro is the first governor from any party to sign legislation pulling his state out of RGGI. The millions generated from RGGI were earmarked for clean energy and transportation projects in the commonwealth. Philadelphia’s transit system is teetering on the brink of a budget crisis, alongside the bus and light-rail network in San Francisco and Chicago, Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo wrote last month. Shapiro, widely considered a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nod in 2028, has sought to dominate the moderate lane in his party, maintaining vocal support for Israel, touting his popularity with his state’s Republican voters, and now reversing a major climate initiative in the name of “cutting costs.”

Meanwhile, in another blow to the climate movement, 350.org, the advocacy group founded by writer Bill McKibben to protest construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline more than a decade ago, plans to “temporarily suspend programming” in the U.S. amid a funding pinch, Politico reported.


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